Re: Stormy's update: Week of July 13th

From: Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>

To: Luis Villa <luis tieguy org>

Cc: stormy gnome org, foundation-list gnome org

Subject: Re: Stormy's update: Week of July 13th

Date: Tue, 21 Jul 2009 21:42:52 -0400

Amazon was also the first significant provider of mainstream
commercial music to offer a 100% DRM-free music store, and also the
first (as far as I know) to offer a GNU/Linux client (albeit a
non-libre client) for their music store.
Distributing a non-libre program means mistreating the users.
We cannot ever consider that a good thing.
Distributing music without DRM was a good thing, but now even the RIAA
says that DRM is dead -- _on music_. But Amazon is trying to impose
DRM on reading books. Whatever good Amazon has done has to be compared
with the great harm it is now trying to do.
This is not to say I'm rushing out to buy a Kindle; I really want one
but haven't pulled the trigger exactly because of the DRM. But using
Amazon affiliate codes to raise revenue for the Foundation is a world
apart from endorsing Kindle's DRM.
Advertising Amazon is a very strong form of promotion. Amazon set up
this affiliate system because it expects to profit more this way -- so
unless Amazon is mistaken in this expectation, the participation of
such organizations contributes substantially to its business.
It also says that GNOME thinks there is nothing really bad about
Amazon. (People presume we would not promote a company we condemn.)
If the intention is to convey a message like this:
If you are going to buy from Amazon, please mention us so as to
give us some of the money. But please don't choose Amazon because
of us!
then how about saying it explicitly? For instance, we could say
If you are going to buy from Amazon, please use our affiliate code.
That way, a part of what you pay will go to the GNOME Foundation.
But please don't let this influence you to choose Amazon.
Remember, Amazon wamts to impose DRM on books
[link there to DefectiveByDesign.org]
The best thing you can do is buy direct from the publisher.
This will succeed in raising some of the funds
without appearing to endorse Amazon.